2467: Why You Almost Never See a Fat Japanese or How I Lost 5 Pounds in Tokyo by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits

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[00:01:08] Why you almost never see a fat Japanese or how I lost five pounds in Tokyo by Leo Babauda of Zenhabits.net and I'm Dr. Neil Malik. Welcome back to Optimal Health Daily where I read to you every day covering the best

[00:01:23] health and fitness blogs with permission from the websites of course and always with a bit of my commentary at the end. And with that, let's get right to the post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:38] Why you almost never see a fat Japanese or how I lost five pounds in Tokyo by Leo Babauda of Zenhabits.net. One of the most striking things about my trip to Japan was how thin everyone was. I kept saying to my family, there are no fat Japanese.

[00:01:58] Now that's not entirely true of course. Aside from sumo wrestlers, there are some Japanese who are fat but at least in my two week trip to Tokyo they were pretty hard to find. Seriously, in America including my home country Oguam you could walk around and half if

[00:02:16] not most of the people you see will be at least a little overweight and many are obese. But in Japan it seems like everyone is thin. I could go a whole day without seeing an obese individual unless it was a tourist.

[00:02:31] I know that this is not groundbreaking news. It's long been known that the Japanese are among the healthiest people on earth with one of the lowest rates of obesity among developed nations and one of the longest

[00:02:43] average life spans but when you actually see it in person it's almost shocking. During my stay in Japan I formed some theories and these won't be groundbreaking either but I think they're worth reflecting on.

[00:02:57] Be aware of course that I'm not an expert in any related field here and my observations are based on a two week stay in Tokyo and therefore are very very limited but here are the reasons the Japanese are not fat in my opinion. 1.

[00:03:12] They eat a lot of seafood and veggies. It's true that they eat red meat and sometimes it's fried but red meat or poultry don't seem to be the main staple of their diet as much as seafood, rice and veggies are.

[00:03:26] Meat seems to be eaten in smaller amounts usually as a seasoning not as a main dish or if it is eaten in bigger amounts it's not an everyday occurrence. Again this is a generalization as is everything in this article so there are many exceptions

[00:03:42] because not everyone in Japan eats the same way. 2. They eat smaller portions. This is very striking actually. While in American restaurants and Guam for that matter the food is piled high in huge portions or super-sized and fast food restaurants.

[00:04:01] In Japan portions are sensible not tiny but definitely not large. You might get a bowl full of soup with some noodles and seafood or meat but it's mostly liquid or you might get some seafood with rice and pickled veggies and miso soup but each are in small amounts.

[00:04:21] In my opinion these smaller portions are probably more important than the type of food they eat. 3. They walk and bike more than we do. This was pretty striking as well. It seems like everyone uses the subway stations and walks every day.

[00:04:38] Their kids walk a good part of the way to school instead of being dropped off by their parents and a lot of people ride bicycles everywhere. Not the kind you ride for exercising or training for races but you're every day

[00:04:52] riding around the city type of bicycles with baskets for a bag or two of groceries. This is all in contrast to us Americans who use cars to get everywhere even to the corner store. Again, this is a generalization and of course you my lovely listeners are exceptions.

[00:05:10] It's a combination of the walking, biking, eating smaller portions and eating more seafood and veggies that may lead to the Japanese being pretty darn healthy in general. Any one of these changes would be a big improvement for most of us in America.

[00:05:25] How I lost 5 pounds on my summer vacation. In just two weeks in Tokyo without dieting or fasting I lost 5 pounds and slimmed down. I'm still not quite at my Leo vs Belly Fat challenge goal yet but I'm getting there.

[00:05:42] I'm 17 pounds lighter than I was when I started my challenge all told. But the fastest fat loss during this challenge came during the two weeks I was in Japan. And here's the kicker, I wasn't trying to lose weight. Here's how I did it.

[00:05:57] One, I walked for hours every day. My family and I walked all over Tokyo for two weeks. We walked about 15 to 20 minutes every morning to the subway station then up and down stairs within the subway system, often transferring trains once or twice, then would

[00:06:16] walk for hours and hours exploring a new part of Tokyo. Then we'd repeat the subway trip and walk home exhausted. Sometimes we'd walk for 10 to 12 hours in a day. Of course we rested in between walking, stopping to enjoy a park or have a meal or a snack

[00:06:33] or browse through a bookstore but most of the time we were walking. Great distances. One, hauling a three-year-old toddler, a stroller or a bag or two. Up and down, lots of stairs and lots of hills.

[00:06:47] It was an amazing amount of exercise and by the end of the two weeks my family and I were in great walking shape. Two, I ate moderate amounts. I didn't stick to a meal plan or fast as I did early on in my belly fat challenge.

[00:07:02] I think both methods were great but I decided to take a break from those methods during my vacation and I didn't worry about what or when I ate. My only thing was to eat until I was just full. Never stuff myself.

[00:07:17] I had desserts, I ate french fries once in a while and I ate white rice which is unusual for me because I usually stick to brown rice. I still ate fairly healthfully most of the time as I enjoy fruits and veggies a lot

[00:07:31] and fried foods kind of make me queasy but I didn't watch what I ate. I just ate moderate amounts. These are really just my two simple fitness rules but the Tokyo tourist version of them and they worked.

[00:07:44] I didn't have to worry as much about what I ate because I burned a ton of calories each day. I hope to continue the walking now that I'm back on Guam. As I've written about before, I've been walking more now that I've moved to a

[00:07:56] more central location here on Guam. I can walk to meetings, to restaurants, to see my sister, to the beach or the playground. Now I'm going to step that up a little. There's no way I can walk the ridiculous amounts I walked in Japan, I have a life

[00:08:10] after all but I hope to walk just about every day and not just for exercise. It's important to walk with a purpose. While many of us will go walking for 30 to 45 minutes for exercise, I found that it's better to walk somewhere, to do something.

[00:08:27] For example, when we walked all day around Tokyo Disneyland which is obligatory if you have as many kids as I do, we didn't think about walking. We were just trying to get to the rides and it was a fun and tiring day.

[00:08:41] On Guam, I hope to walk to places to do my work, walk with my kids to beaches and parks, go on hikes, walk on dates with my wife to restaurants and movies, walk to go on errands and so on. I encourage everyone to consider doing the same.

[00:08:56] You'll be amazed at how great it feels. You just listened to the post titled, Why You Almost Never See a Fat Japanese or How I Lost 5 Pounds in Tokyo by Leo Babauda of Zenhabits.net and I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neal here for my commentary.

[00:09:19] Now what Leo witnessed on his trip to Japan is actually backed by science. There are many published studies that have shown that certain populations in Japan are healthier than most of us in the US and frankly healthier than most around the world.

[00:09:35] In fact, Okinawa Japan has quite a few centenarians, meaning those that have lived to at least 100 years of age. They have more centenarians than most other countries in the world. Now you might be thinking, well then how do you know it's not just genetics?

[00:09:51] Maybe Okinawans have healthier genes than we do and that's why they live longer. Well I would agree that genetics absolutely play a role in determining how long we live. But it turns out that Okinawans are not the only ones that tend to live longer, healthier lives.

[00:10:08] Other areas of the world like Sardinia, Italy, Ikaria, Greece, the Nikoya Peninsula of Costa Rica and even an area near me, Loma Linda, California have residents that are more likely to live into their 100s and beyond. So what's so special about these areas of the world?

[00:10:28] Well actually in today's article, Leo cracked the code. Much of it relates to the residents diet and activity levels. In these areas of the world, these citizens eat mostly unprocessed whole foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains and they stay active for most of their lives.

[00:10:48] That's what these areas of the world have in common. So the opinions Leo presented in his article are actually backed by quite a bit of science. Alright, that'll do it for the Thursday episode. I hope you're having a great day and I'll be back here tomorrow as usual.

[00:11:04] We are Optimal Life awaits.